Is race a factor in global intervention in Genocides?

This may be a bit more than political. I wrote this last year when I got bored. It seems like that the government tries to hide our evil deeds and say that we are the best and we have done nothing wrong in our history. They say that we are always on the side of good and will defeat evil no matter where it is but yet in a way the blood of all those murdered in Guinea, Cambodia, Congo, Rwanda, Darfur and every else where we knew that genocide was taking place (or with Darfur is still going on) but we did nothing to stop it. I believe that we did not stop any or we are not trying to end the one in Darfur is because many people consider it a "tribal issue" or that "they always do this so why should I care?" so they do nothing. Another reason and I hope I am wrong but I know I am right most likely is that no one is doing anything or has done anything (I don't mean political crap I mean sending in the Marines and other Special Forces like we did whenever it suited our political or economic interest ) is because of race. It seems like the many people have the mentality of 'they are not white so why should people care' I know that sounds harsh but it is most likely true and I am ashamed of the fact that not everyone sees it not as a race or tribal or whatever issue but they don't see it as a humanitarian issue that all human beings not matter what race or other factors the victims are but that they are human beings and we need to help them. 20 years from now when the Darfurian genocide is hopeful over, people will ask me "What did do?" I will say that I did help in ending it but history will judge who did nothing and what was not done. Sure they will talk about the few that were good but they will focus on the bad the fact that the world just sat back and watched as another genocide took place again even though we have said over and over again "Never again, never again" but we always let it happen again and again and again. The world needs to get off its ass and stop this mentality of "what do I get out of ending this" and "it's their problem not mine" racist mentality and end it once and for all. The entire world, all of humanity should be ashamed because as a group, as a collective civilization, have allowed hundreds of thousands if not millions to die and we continue to let thousands more die every day while we argue over trivial things that have already been lost to history. Shame on us all.

 

It is an interesting argument, however I don't think it is as simple as 'black and white' racism. Rather it is more to do with our political and economic interests and on a more simple level distance. People in Africa can do pretty much what they want to one another and it will next to no impact on us because it is simply in-fighting and will never really influence the outside world. Something similar in Bosnia or Kosovo however would put an unstable nation on the boundries of Nato and is far too close to home for us to let lie (or indeed close to national interests in the case of the US).

So whilst I don't think it is racism in the black vs. white sense it is certainly to do with how detached we are from the situation and what would best serve our national interests (or rather the interests of the current government). I don't think it is too much of a generalisation to say that foreign policy is never determined by altruism, nobody has ever invaded anywhere because it was the 'right thing to do,' there is always something else in the mix.

 

Stefan you can also read it your argument in an a more positive (for us) light. The western world has a chance a doing some good in the Balkans because we have some influence there due to economic ties. So we have a chance of breaking the "hate escalation" by giving everybody "something less bl*** to strive for" and supporting local leaders that don't have a hate based platform.
What would we be doing in the middle of Africa beside protecting one warlord against another and getting shot at for our troubles from both sides?
In the long run soldiers don't stop wars, politicians do, and there's no political infrastructure to interact with there.
The French have shown time and again that a batallion of legion etrangere paratroopers can "strongly dissuade" machete armed bands. A similar UN fast intervention force may prevent the worse cases from happening but it's not a long term solution.

PS: I can't believe I'm actually stating politicians have some use !!!

 

Agreed, the 'send a gunboat' strategy has worked well enough in the short term before but it doesn't deal with problems that cause the violence. I think also there is the risk that any military intervention in Africa makes people think 'Mogadishu' which is a pretty good way if disuading anyone from getting involved in African politics.